Gayle and Kallis take top spots

Chris Gayle's unbeaten 175 against Pune Warriors, and Jacques Kallis' 3 for 13 against Sunrisers Hyderabad have emerged as the top performances so far in IPL 2013, according to an analysis by ESPNcricinfo.

Gayle's hurricane hundred, which broke several records - it's the highest individual score, the innings with the most sixes in Twenty20 cricket, as well the fastest hundred in the format - is miles ahead of the rest of the competition. The next-best so far in the tournament is Virat Kohli's 93 not out against Sunrisers Hyderabad during a run-chase of 161 in Bangalore. The two other heavyweights in the side, Gayle and AB de Villiers, totalled only 28 in that match, but Kohli guided them home with a superb unbeaten 93 off 47 balls.

Kohli's effort is about a couple of points ahead of David Miller's matchwinning unbeaten 80 for Kings XI Punjab against Warriors in Mohali, after Warriors had scored 185 batting first. Kings XI fell to 5 for 2 and then 58 for 3, before Miller got together with Mandeep Singh and put on 128 for the fourth wicket to guide Kings XI to victory. Miller was the dominant partner, scoring 80 off 41, while Mandeep's unbeaten 77 is in 23rd place. MS Dhoni's 51 off 26 against Mumbai Indians is next, even though that effort was in a losing cause. Chasing a modest target of 149, Super Kings fell far behind the asking rate before Dhoni brought them back with some frenetic hitting. It required a superb catch by Keiron Pollard at the midwicket boundary to curtail that innings and end Super Kings' chase.

Gayle features twice in the top five, and three times in the top eight, while the first century of this IPL, Shane Watson's 101 against Super Kings, is seventh. However, the innings that upstaged that century and ensured a successful chase of 186, Michael Hussey's 88 off 51, is a slot above Watson in sixth place.

Hussey also features at No.14, while the first sub-50 score in the list is Ravindra Jadeja's unbeaten 36 off 14 balls, which helped Super Kings over the line in a low-scoring run-chase against Knight Riders.

Top batting performances in IPL 2013

Batsman

Innings

Against

Strike rate

Points

Chris Gayle (RCB)

175*

Pune Warriors

265.15

74.86

Virat Kohli (RCB)

93*

Sunrisers Hyderabad

197.87

55.38

David Miller (Kings XI)

80*

Pune Warriors

195.12

53.58

MS Dhoni (CSK)

51

Mumbai Indians

196.15

52.68

Chris Gayle (RCB)

92*

Mumbai Indians

158.62

52.31

Michael Hussey (CSK)

88

Rajasthan Royals

172.55

50.64

Shane Watson (RR)

101

Chennai Super Kings

165.57

49.26

Chris Gayle (RCB)

85*

Kolkata Knight Riders

170.00

48.57

Virender Sehwag (DD)

95*

Mumbai Indians

166.67

48.45

Ravindra Jadeja (CSK)

36*

Kolkata Knight Riders

257.14

46.83

Manpreet Gony (Kings XI)

42

Kolkata Knight Riders

233.33

46.35

AB de Villiers (RCB)

64

Chennai Super Kings

200.00

46.00

Keiron Pollard (MI)

57*

Chennai Super Kings

150.00

45.65

Michael Hussey (CSK)

86*

Kings XI Punjab

159.26

44.89

Dinesh Karthik (MI)

86

Delhi Daredevils

179.17

44.38

Though the bowlers have generally done well in the tournament, there haven't been too many stand-out performances in terms of a bowler taking a clutch of wickets. Only three times has a bowler taken four wickets, which includes Amit Mishra's hat-trick.

However, the top bowling performance according to this analysis is Jacques Kallis' 3 for 13 against Sunrisers in a fairly high-scoring match: the match aggregate was 312 in 40 overs, a run rate of 7.80. Kallis took three top-order wickets, dismissing Parthiv Patel, Cameron White, and Thisara Perera, and went at only 3.25 runs per over, less than half the match run rate.

Next-best is Umesh Yadav's 4 for 24 for Delhi Daredevils against Rajasthan Royals in the fourth match of the season, largely because all his wickets were of top-order batsmen, and among the batsmen he dismissed were Rahul Dravid and Brad Hodge. That was also a high-scoring match, with a run rate of 8.13, which also pushed Yadav's overall points higher than if the match run rate had been lower. Mohit Sharma's 3 for 10 for Super Kings against Daredevils is next, largely because he dismissed three top-order batsmen - Virender Sehwag, David Warner and Manprit Juneja.

With James Faulkner and Praveen Kumar taking the next two positions, the top five are all seamers. The first spinner in the list is Sunil Narine, for his 4 for 13 against Daredevils in the first match of the tournament. What reduced his overall points tally for the performance was the quality of his wickets - only one of the batsmen he dismissed was among the top six. Bhuvneshwar Kumar features twice in successive positions, while Mishra's top performance so far is his 3 for 19 against Warriors. The batsmen he dismissed in that match were Manish Pandey, Yuvraj Singh and Abhishek Nayar. In the return game between the two teams, when he took the hat-trick, three of his wickets were those of Nos.9, 10, and 11, which pushed that performance down to No.26.

Top bowling performances in IPL 2013

Bowler

Figures

Econ rate

Against

Points

Jacques Kallis

3 for 13

3.25

Sunrisers Hyderabad

57.90

Umesh Yadav

4 for 24

6.00

Rajasthan Royals

56.90

Mohit Sharma

3 for 10

3.33

Delhi Daredevils

53.70

James Faulkner

3 for 20

5.00

Chennai Super Kings

51.99

Praveen Kumar

2 for 10

2.50

Rajasthan Royals

49.82

Sunil Narine

4 for 13

3.25

Delhi Daredevils

49.50

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

2 for 12

3.00

Chennai Super Kings

47.95

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

3 for 18

4.50

Sunrisers Hyderabad

45.73

Azhar Mahmood

3 for 21

5.25

Kolkata Knight Riders

44.74

Vinay Kumar

3 for 27

6.75

Mumbai Indians

44.13

Kevon Cooper

3 for 15

3.75

Kolkata Knight Riders

43.48

RP Singh

3 for 27

6.75

Sunrisers Hyderabad

42.47

Amit Mishra

3 for 19

4.75

Pune Warriors

42.22

RP Singh

3 for 13

3.25

Rajasthan Royals

41.91

Vinay Kumar

3 for 18

4.50

Rajasthan Royals

41.89

The main factors that were considered

Match strike rate: Each batting and bowling performance was weighted against the scoring rate in that match. Thus, an 80 off 40 balls got more points if it comes in a match in which the other batsmen struggle to score quickly, compared to one in which several other batsmen make quick runs. Similarly, an economical spell gets more points in a high-scoring game.

Batting position: Since the 20-over game is one in which top-order batsmen get many more opportunities than even middle-order ones, the runs scored were weighted against the average scores by batsmen in those batting positions. A middle- or lower-order batsman thus gets more credit for a half-century compared to a top-order batsman.

Quality of wickets taken: In T20 matches, bowlers often taken lower-order wickets in a cluster towards the end of an innings. In this analysis, the lower-order wickets fetch lesser rewards for a bowler compared to a top-order wicket.

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